Years ago I was sitting on a seawall in Yomitan and had just arrived at this point in my decision making process. It was right then when an old Japanese man walking past stopped and looked straight at me. He didn’t look through me, he looked in me. And then he said in Japanese:

If we get lucky, we’ll spot a tourist wearing a thick gold chain, a speeding motorsai, and get a picture of the now bare necked tourist running down the street after the motorsai shouting in French or German.

There is no question owning your own car in Thailand carries some risk, or that it can be dangerous, and that the stresses can easily become an issue. However, if you learn all you can about the system, anticipate as many issues as possible ahead of time where you have the time to think them through, and you exercise good judgment, you should be fine.

Recently I’ve realized something. If you’d asked me what was my favorite time of year in Thailand I would have said from mid-December through the end of February. And indeed these are the coolest most comfortable months. What I realized, is that Thailand being so hot and humid most of the year, when we get a few cool months I just naturally assumed they were my favorite months.

Perhaps the major disadvantage is that Thai’s never learn the necessary social and analytical skills for calm, rational, and reasoned resistance. The ability to rationally and effectively present your position is the hallmark of citizens of civilized countries. Thai’s generally are very ‘obedient’ and ‘unquestioning’ of authority or even general harassment.

As much as we complain, and I’m as guilty of it as the next guy, ultimately we’re all here because the good (as we individually rate it) outweighs the bad. We’re here because we want to be despite all the negatives you could fit in a shoebox. We’re here, because THIS Is Thailand.

In Thailand corruption is a lifestyle, a business essential, an ‘every mans’ issue most every citizen deals with more than occasionally. Their justice system is corrupt from the top down, from their highest courts to the lowest law enforcement officials.

This week the biggest news is the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) which I've been closely following. This year’s big news are the new Sandy Bridge Intel CPU's which include a video card on the CPU chip itself which is fairly competent, uses much less power, and for mainstream PC's will become very popular.